Dozens of council staff have received staggering six-figure redundancy packages after leaving local authorities in Wales, we can reveal.

Dozens of council staff have received staggering six-figure redundancy packages after leaving local authorities in Wales, we can reveal.

A total of 49 people had packages which each cost councils £100,000 or more over the past two financial years – with councils spending nearly £100m on redundancies within that time.

However, councils said savings from reducing staff numbers would outweigh the cost of redundancy packages over the long term.

The biggest package, which are made up of redundancy pay, pension costs and other costs associated with the person leaving the council, went to a member of staff at Cardiff Council and cost £232,665 in 2011/ 12.

Other big pay-outs include:

* Two employees at Swansea Council, whose packages totalled £342,000

* £1.9m in six-figure redundancy payments for 15 staff at Rhondda Cynon Taf in 2010/11 – and another £466,000 for four more leavers the following year

* £147,000 for a member of staff at Gwynedd and £134,000 for an employee at Merthyr Tydfil.

Nearly two thirds of redundancy payments, 64%, are worth less than £20,000, averaging between £4,000 and £8,000, depending on the council.

Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: "Staff that are made redundant are entitled to a pay-off but too many packages are overly generous, particularly when taxpayers are working hard to make every penny count.

"Huge golden goodbyes undermine the long-term savings that necessary redundancies are meant to make and show that contracts in the public sector are badly negotiated at the outset.

"What’s more, we need to see an end to boomerang bosses who can pocket huge pay-offs, only to walk into yet another job with the public sector top brass."

A Cardiff Council spokesman said: "The council has a scheme in place which means the maximum redundancy payment to anyone is £29,700.

"In the past two years, 537 officers have left the council under the Voluntary Early Retirement and Voluntary Severance/Redundancy Scheme.

"Officers are only allowed to leave when there is a satisfactory business case.

"As a result of this, in the last two financial years the number of officers leaving the council has contributed to our overall budget savings."

A spokesman for Rhondda Cynon Taf Council said reducing the overall head count had already secured over £40m worth of savings over recent years

He said: "Inevitably, there is an up front cost to such a process, but the mechanism of voluntary redundancies or early retirement is only utilised, if the financial business case backs it, and demonstrates the appropriate savings moving forward.

"Also the sums quoted need to be set in the context of the council’s pay bill being some £270m per year."

At least 2,130 people left Welsh councils in 2010/11 at a cost of £48m, with a further 2,450 in 2011/12 costing £44m.

Of these, 1,088 were compulsory redundancies, with the number almost doubling from 376 in 2010/11 to 712 in 2011/12.

Monmouthshire Council has seen the highest number of compulsory redundancies with 171 over the two-year period.

A council spokesman said around half of 175 redundancies at the council were school based and related to addressing surplus through the Education Strategic Review.

He said: "The remaining redundancies are the result of reorganisations of services within the council.

"Not all of these redundancies are compulsory and where possible, Monmouthshire seeks to achieve job reduc- tions through a voluntary route."

A WLGA spokesman said redundancy compensation arrangements within Welsh local government have generally been revised downwards in recent years.

He said: "Staff costs form the largest part of local government with teachers, social workers, refuse collectors and other front line workers being key to the delivery of essential public services.

"The pressures on budgets are huge.

"A recent independent report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows how local government spending on non-protected public services may have to be cut by as much as 52% in the future.

"Such extreme financial pressures will obviously impact on the 150,000 jobs currently supported by local government in Wales, with redundancy being a possible, but highly regrettable, long term cost saving solution.

"As local employers, any job losses from local councils will have a highly negative effect on the local communities who rely on the public services, employment and income that they provide."

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